


Measure of a man

by rosa241



Series: Brothers, lovers and everything in between [13]
Category: The Musketeers (2014)
Genre: Athos is awesome, introductions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-01
Updated: 2018-03-01
Packaged: 2019-03-25 14:07:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13836363
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosa241/pseuds/rosa241
Summary: Watching Athos fight in episode 4 brings Treville’s mind back to the first time he saw him duel.





	Measure of a man

**Author's Note:**

> It was mentioned in Thoughts from the captain that Athos came to Treville’s attention after a duel with a rather vial criminal, let’s see how that goes.

** Measure of a man  
By Rosa241 **

**Treville POV Throughout:**

Watching Athos facing off against the Duke this afternoon had been exhilarating to watch. Of course I knew that he would win, as I told Richelieu Athos is the best swordsman in the regiment. What I didn’t tell him, for this he did not need to know, is that he is far more than that. More than just simply being the best swordsman in the regiment he is the best swordsman I have ever seen period. Watching Athos duel is like watching something so wonderful that it never fails to take my breath away.

Truth be told I doubt there’s anyone who could truly match him stride for stride, although thinking about it D’artagnan comes in a close second. The lad had been good from the start but his talent was untrained and raw. Since Athos had been tutoring the lad it was obvious that he was going to be one of the best but no one would ever match the man I was sure of it. The man was even the best swordsman when drunk, in fact he had been drunk when I’d first seen duel. Thinking back now it was rather remarkable really.

_ Flashback: _

_Dropping my head onto the desk I heaved a sigh. How could one man be so hard to find? It’s been weeks and we’re no closer to capturing that vial man than we were on day one. Things had gotten so bad that even the Red Guard were on high alert. Of course initially Richelieu had taken great pleasure in taunting, in front of the King of course, that my Musketeers had yet to capture the thieving scum – not that he’d used those words exactly. After the first woman though…_

_That poor woman._

_That vial creature had not only robbed the woman but he’d taken advantage of her before stabbing her and leaving her for dead. She was barely 20 years old. Barely into adulthood with the whole of her life in front of her and now she was dead. Even Richelieu had seen the need for something to be done and had doubled the Red Guard patrol of the city. Since then not only have two more women been killed but three members of the Red Guard and one of my Musketeers had been severely wounded. We could only pray that Giraud would make it through. Now the whole of Paris was on our backs and it kills me to know we have no hope of catching him._

_Things had looked good last week when a passer-by had correctly identified the thief. A young boy had been hiding out after stealing from the local blacksmith when he’d witnessed the man assaulting that poor girl. He hadn’t intervened and had instead remained hidden until the man had left. Thankfully he’d been able to identify the man through the dark as Leon Pierre Bon_ _é who we’d then found out was discharged from the army following the discovery that he’d been pillaging corpses. He was meant to have been arrested but he escaped capture and wound up in Paris. After this I genuinely thought that we would be able to find him but the man had gone to ground. Since then no sign._

_Sighing heavily I stood from my desk and made my way out of the office._

_“You two with me now.” Sitting in the Garrison wasn’t going to do anything to stop this man. Although I know it won’t do much good heading out onto the streets is about the only thing that will make me feel better right now._

_Four streets later and still no sign I’m beginning to think that we’ll never find him. It’s as I stop for a moment of breath that I hear it. The clashing of swords. Heading towards it finds me watching a sight I’m sure I will never forget._

_Standing before me is the exact man we’ve been looking for clashing away in a duel with another man whose face I do not know. What I do know is that he’s clearly drunk, if the swaying wasn’t giving it away then the bottle of wine clutched in his left hand was enough of a tell. What struck me more though wasn’t that the man was a drunk, there were many of them in Paris, but was the way he was so easily keeping up with the criminal. The two Musketeers beside me were just as torn as I was as to whether or not we should intervene but I was frozen in shock and awe. It was mesmerising to see just how easily the drunk was keeping up with the criminal who was so clearly well trained. Within minutes the whole thing was over and the vial man was lying on the floor with a sword at his throat._

_ End Flashback _

It had been just like that and things were over. From what Giraud had said when he was duelling the man it had taken everything he had just to keep up with him and Giraud was no slouch. The fact that Athos was so easily able to take the man on whilst steaming drunk was a testament to just how talented the man was. For weeks I hadn’t been able to get that duel out of my head and it truly hadn’t taken me long to find Athos once I’d made my decision. A quick trawl of the taverns had found the man in a similar state to the one he had been in that night.

At first he had protested quite vigorously and made it perfectly clear that he was in no way going to become a Musketeer. Following two further conversations in the days that followed I had no more success which had led me to believe that would be it. When he walked into the Garrison a little over a week later somewhat sober and taken me up on the offer I was remarkably surprised. In the years since then he’d become an incredible Musketeer and had shown the world the truly amazing man that lay beneath the surface. Since D’artagnan had come into the mix however something wonderful had happened. Not only had the man’s drinking curbed to the point where he could no longer be classed as a suicidal drunk but he had also brought down the self-built wall surrounding him. Since the younger man had become his protégée something in Athos had changed for the better.

Watching him this afternoon had only confirmed to me what I’d known all those years ago when I first saw him. He was an incredible person.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so that’s it for now. Truth be told I got a little bit sick of all the modern stories I’ve been writing with the Musketeers lately so I thought getting back to the roots would be a good way to continue. Thankfully this little beauty came to my head when I was re-watching the series recently.  
> Spoilers – Next fic will be called – Recollection.  
> Until next time,  
> Bye x


End file.
